Three states are considering pro-knife laws that need your help, Knife Rights reports.
Pending measures in Kansas, Tennessee and Texas have been approved in lower legislative bodies and are moving on for further approval. If you act now, you still have time to help ensure these pro-knife laws will be enacted.
The one in Kansas (HB2033) would enact Knife Law Preemption and repeal the ban on switchblades, dirks, daggers and stilettos. Legislators helping the cause there include Rep. Jim Howell and Rep. Richard Carlson.
Tennessee’s progressive pro-knife law (Senate Bill SB1015) would also enact Knife Law Preemption, repeal the state’s antiquated switchblade ban and repeal the state’s 4-inch blade-length limitation. Sen. Mike Bell has been most helpful in the fight to save the knife rights of those in the great state of Tennessee.
Finally, the Texas law (HB1299) would enact Knife Law Preemption and repeal the state switchblade ban (HB1862). Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr., has led the fight in the Lone Star State.
According to Knife Rights, Knife Law Preemption has been enacted in Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire and Georgia.
For more information on how you can help visit www.KnifeRights.org.
Three states are considering pro-knife laws that need your help. www.shopblade.com/embassy-aluminum-w-black-g-10-inlay-black-blade-combinationedge-w8498?lid=ssfbbl032213
A bevy of EDC knives graces the cover of our special EDC issue: the CRKT CEO, V Nives Killabite, Hogue Knives First Response Trauma Tool, TOPS Knives Mini Tanimboca Puukko and Gerber Knife Key Note.
CRKT’s CEO is a slender Richard Rogers design with the go-to lock of many EDC folders: a linerlock. For a small EDC in damascus blade steel with a miniature tactical feel, the V Nives Killabite fills the bill. The Mini Tanimboca Puukko is a neck knife that doubles as a small bushcraft model thanks in part to its flat-back Scandi-ground blade. The Hogue Knives First Response Trauma Tool is perhaps the most utilitarian in terms of EDC: a rescue knife. And finally, the Outdoor Edge MiniBlaze is a keychain knife—the type of EDC you don’t usually need to worry about remembering to take along with you because it’s with your keys.
A.G. Russell, long-time knife entrepreneur, founder of A.G. Russell Knives, a founding member of The Knifemakers’ Guild, and a member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame, passed away Oct. 12. During what was supposed to be a routine angiogram to check for blockage in a coronary artery, A.G.’s heart gave out. He was 85.
As recently as Wednesday, Oct. 10, A.G. spent a big part of most business days in the office working with Phil Gibbs on knife designs and talking to customers in the A.G. Russell Knives retail knife store in Rogers, Arkansas. Saturdays were especially important to A.G. He would spend most of the six hours that the store was open on that day, talking to customers. He especially enjoyed the children who visited the store.
“To say we are all in a state of shock is putting it mildly,” stated Mrs. Goldie Russell, A.G.’s wife, business partner of over 30 years and fellow BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Famer. “I do take great comfort in knowing from conversations we have had of late that he was simply tired and ready to be called Home, and that he is no longer experiencing pain and discomfort.”
Visitation will be on Sunday, October 21 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. at Westfield Chapel Funeral Home in Springdale. Funeral services will be held on Monday, October 22 at 2:00 p.m. at Lakeview Baptist Church on Hwy 265 between Lowell and Cave Springs.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to military and veterans organizations that will be listed shortly here.
If it is your preference to send flowers, that may be arranged at the Heartfelt Sympathies Store online. Click here for more information.
On the knife front, the larger point to be made is about the intentions behind the use of a knife. Here is a group of people with serious criminal records. In another context, that could be dicey, but here it isn’t. It takes the air out of arguments for regulating knives according to specs.
Knife Skills also shows how knives can create collaborative spaces for the sake of art, business or leisure. Can a restaurant function without knives? Why do the best chefs on Earth also seek the best knives? You can’t separate food and people so long as there is a tool with a cutting edge, and that means knives. The relationship is so essential that even convicts can be trusted to preserve it.
The documentary caught the attention of more than just BLADE, too. It received a 2018 Oscar nomination. We’ll see if a knife movie brings home the big award on March 4, when the awards ceremony takes place.
Knife Skills didn’t hit theaters in a wide release, but you can stream it on Amazon Prime for a couple bucks.
Heads up: The trailer above contains some coarse language.
Happy 30th Birthday, Outdoor Edge
Denver-based Outdoor Edge turned 30 years old last month, which means it’s still clinging to the spirit of its 20s but contemplating middle age while holding down a mortgage and a couple kids. (In lieu of a birthday card, BLADE respectfully submits that joke.)
Outdoor Edge won a BLADE Magazine Knife Of The Year® in its debut year at the 1988 BLADE Show in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the Game Skinner. As BLADE‘s Steve Shackleford points out, that went on to be one of the most knocked off knives ever. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.
Outdoor Edge exploded onto the scene with the Game Skinner. (Outdoor Edge image)
Less copied is the way Outdoor Edge got its start, simply because it’s so challenging to build a knife company from the ground up. From its news release:
From its humble beginnings as a one-man show with four prototype samples, [David] Bloch’s company, Outdoor Edge, has grown significantly in the past thirty years. Currently, the company has 24 employees and offers more than 120 products. Originally based in Boulder, Colorado, the company moved to a larger facility in Denver in 2010.
BLADE wishes Outdoors Edge 30 more great years of success!
Choose a few high-quality knives instead of a knife block set, as sets tend to have a lot of filler knives that you don’t need. Wirecutter suggests three different knives for the average cook: chef’s knife, paring knife and serrated knife.
The SOG-TAC Mini-Auto from SOG Specialty Knives & Tools is one of many knives that will benefit from the new Washington pro-knife bill. (SOG Specialty Knives & Tools photo)
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed HB2347 into law Thursday, March 29, at a signing ceremony at the state capitol. This important legislation makes Washington state more friendly to knife owners and manufacturers by clarifying the definition of so-called “spring blade” knives (automatics/switchblades) so as to clearly make assisted-opening knives legal in the state.
The clarification allows for both sale and manufacture of assisted-opening knives in Washington. HB2347 also makes it legal to manufacture automatics in the state of Washington. In addition, it would expand the existing law enforcement exemption for possession of automatics to members of the military and full-time first responders.
Thanks to all who called and emailed throughout the process and helped to make this happen.
Mike Vellekamp, one of the owners of Fox Knives USA, helped spearhead the effort to get the bill passed and was on hand with the governor when she signed the bill. If it were not for Vellekamp’s initiative and hard work, things would not be moving forward for knife owners and manufacturers in the state. He garnered the support of his 25th District Senator Jim Kastama and Rep. Bruce Dammeier to introduce the legislation that will benefit the state’s knife business, public safety personnel and individual knife owners.
In testimony before the state house judiciary committee Vellekamp noted, “We need to get rid of the stigma that these are weapons and we need to start calling them tools because that’s what they are. The push for this bill is so that we can ensure the local law enforcement branches, our military and our firefighters get to use these valuable tools because when they get trapped, they need to get out. They need a tool at the ready that’s going to be there without needing another hand to open it.”
American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI)Advisory Member Spencer Frazer, founder of SOG Specialty Knives & Tools ofLynnwood, Washington, testified at the house judiciary committee hearing in support ofHB 2347.
“The definition of switchblade needs to be clarified, and this bill does that,” he commented regarding changes that include, “A knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires physical exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife is not a spring blade knife.” This is the same “bias toward closure” language that AKTI introduced and has been successfully passed in other states and incorporated in to the 2009 amendment to theFederal Switchblade Act.
For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb040212#BL1SU.
Who says domestic knife manufacturing is dying? Alabama-based knife company Bear & Son Cutlery will grow its Jacksonville facility and add new jobs. From The Anniston Star:
Bear & Son Cutlery in Jacksonville plans to take a stab at expanding production and adding more jobs.
The knife manufacturer expects to buy equipment and hire around 25 people over the next two years to meet growing customer demand.
Assisting with the expansion is a local tax abatement, as well as a generous knife pun on behalf of the Star.
He’s never done learning. Never done perfecting his craft.
“A simple score in music, right? A simple score is just a few notes and it’s very straightforward. Nothing fancy,” Grosvenor said. “When you get into a forged blade, the score can be Beethoven. I mean, it’s just where do you want it to end?”
In other words, knifemakers don’t know how to stop. An appearance on a popular TV show isn’t the peak. It’s another stop on the journey into the craft of knifemaking.
Grosvenor likely isn’t alone. Contestants, as BLADE reported here, experience a boost in sales after appearing on the show. They don’t rest on their laurels for long.
A Steak Knife that Looks Like a Scalpel
On Feb. 19, new knife company Skalpel will launch a Kickstarter to prime the pump for its steak knife. The twist? It looks like a scalpel.
While some most Kickstarter knives should be taken with a grain of salt, the Skalpel is backed up by an actual knifemaker, Stuart Mitchell, out of Sheffield, England. Each knife is made from “high carbon, surgical grade steel,” per the website.
No word yet on whether there will be a matching fork.
Kirpan: When Knife Restrictions Collide with Religious Freedom
A kirpan and sheath. (By Harisingh at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4525719)
As part of the Five Ks, the kirpan is a dagger that is central to the Sikh faith. Sikhs carry the dagger on their person, and that can conflict with knife restrictions. Simply put, Sikhs can find themselves forced to choose between adhering to their faith and breaking the law.
New Zealand, which restricts the public carry of daggers such as the kirpan, is one such place where this scenario plays out frequently. It’s home to 19,000 Sikhs, which is why that status could change in the future.
National Party MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi wants the law changed to make it legal for Sikhs to carry ceremonial daggers.
It’s one of five articles of Sikh faith, that baptised Sikhs must carry the small, curved knives known as kirpan.
Bakshi said Kiwi Sikhs were “criminalised” by not being granted an exemption under the Crimes Act to practice their faith and wear the kirpan.
So what’s the hold up? It comes down to the challenge of separating “good” daggers from “bad” daggers.
“It requires an exception to the law carrying what could be classed as a weapon and it has implications for going onto aircraft, that sort of thing, you just have to really careful.”
That “careful” approach may be small comfort for the 19,000 Sikhs living in New Zealand, as indicated by similar attempts around the world to balance public safety and religious expression. Denmark, for example, ruled kirpans as illegal items in 2006. In Sweden, a kirpan must be dull in order to be carried in public. In the United Kingdom, where public knife possession could result in years in prison, kirpans are generally accepted as being lawful, although it may take a trip to court to prove it.
Knife Companies Play April Fool’s Day Pranks
Not one to miss out on a holiday built around jokes (the knife puns write themselves!), the knife community sharpened its wits for April Fool’s Day. Here are two great examples.
If you ever thought to yourself, “What this yoga session needs is a knife strapped against my pelvis,” you’re in luck. Alexo Athletica recently debuted yoga pants with room for a sheathed knife, as well as any other items to round out your tactical-inspired athleisure ensemble.
With nine pockets, these versatile high-rise quality leggings were designed to hold all your essentials that make you carry with confidence.
With yoga pants becoming ubiquitous outside of exercise rooms, it only makes sense that a company would design products for the concealed carry crowd. The Signature Pant, pictured above, was sold out at press time.
